First Page Rank and SEO

First page rank through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the holy grail for many business owners, and one of the most elusive achievements. We have had countless discussions over the years with business owners obsessed with SEO rank, including, “I need to rank on the first page of Google next month.” This statement was from an owner of a landscape/yard service business a month before his busy season was to begin.

While many business owners have been frustrated with our candor on the reality of first page rank, our position continues to be the right one: there are no magic diet pills for rapid weight loss, get-rich-quick schemes that work, and certainly nothing a business owner can do to achieve first page rank in a month.

White Hat SEO, also referred to as Ethical SEO, is the only strategy we have employed for our clients. The term White Hat SEO refers to using optimization strategies and techniques that focus on human audience instead of search engines, and also follows all search engine rules and policies. By focusing on content relevancy and organic ranking techniques, we optimize our clients’ sites over time, which, in turn, raises their rank. Using the proper keywords, conducting regular keyword analyses, and constantly writing content for human readers are just a few of the techniques we use for our clients.

Focusing on first page rank, which is something many business owners aspire to, isn’t what is most important regarding SEO anyway. What’s most essential isn’t where a business ranks on a particular word or phrase, but rather the results they are achieving for the efforts. Should it really matter if a business ranks high, if that rank isn’t converting to calls, appointments, or sales? By investing in organic SEO efforts to increase content on a business website that is also keyword rich, leads to long-term success and ultimately the aforementioned goals.

I had an interesting discussion with a client recently, who told me he was shocked at how much traffic they are getting in the store from their website. He said, “All of a sudden we are getting significant traffic, with people telling us they came in after visiting our website.” And, while social media and email marketing efforts continue to be a big driver for them, the website has eclipsed it–which has led to record sales for two out of four months for the business.

I explained it really wasn’t “all of a sudden” since our team has been regularly writing blog posts for their site for the last 11 months with the proper keyword tagging. SEO isn’t a quick fix for any website, but rather a long, slow build. But when a business hits it, the payoff can be more than a business owner imagined.